1. Technical Field of the Invention
The disclosure generally relates to the modular safe panels, where five rectangular modules being three walls, floor, and roof, and with the sixth module being a door equipped with hinge, all together function as the safe container assembled with bolts.
2. Description of Related Art
Both monolithic and modular types of safes have to comply with Underwriters Laboratory Standards (No. 687) relating to burglary resistant safes. Modular safes are in disadvantage with monolithic containers due to the existence of the outside visible seams between modules bolted together, attacked by burglars with wedges or spreaders to defeat bolting connections. To prevent such mode of burglary, fasteners are strategically embedded in every panel, while innermost transitive structures in the form of perforated boxes, are used to connect matching parts. The transitive structures occupy the storage space of the safe container reducing its capacity. The steel lining, in conjunction with steel framing, is used in various configurations to determine the shape of panel and works as shells for casting concrete mixture. Modular panels, predestined to be assembled into safe container with the use of bolts, are made of sheet metal shells where the closed side is used for attachment of transitional bolting apparatus and is placed inside the safe space of the safe container. The concrete mixture is poured from open side of the shell, therefore the cast in every modular panel of the safe assembly is facing outside of the safe container. Assembly and disassembly of the transient modular safe is always performed from inside of the container.
Strength of modular safe panel is determined by the thickness and type of filament, the amount and kind of embedded reinforcement, and strategically placed fasteners. The high strength concrete mix for modern safes utilizes ceramics instead of gravel and steel fibers that, together, provide better tool and torch resistance during burglary attempt. Contact with outside surface of the module, where steel fibers in the form of needles protrude from the cast, causes severe injury. To prevent and avoid such occurrences, and also increase visual appearance of the product, outside surface of the module is usually covered with sheet metal flats or liners welded to the outside frame.
Due to the concrete mix shrinkage during curing process, the outside surface is always concaved even with the use of plasticizers reducing the amount of water in the mix. Finishing plate placed on concaved surface leaves a feeling of void underneath, and that feeling is further augmented by the heat distortion of the steel material when the finishing plates are welded with the modules. Heat distortion affects in the same extent both finishing plate and module's shell, and, as a result, increases difficulty in matching adjoining modules during the safe assembly.
Fasteners in the form of threaded inserts are embedded inside the cast of the modular panel reducing actual thickness of the secure mix to be defeated during burglary attempt, and therefore decreasing the security of the modular panel.
Shells in known art are made from sheet metal parts, welded together to form the pan in rectangular shape and to become a mold for the particular part of modular safe container. Production process of the pans includes shearing flat sheets of metal to size and shape, forming acquired blanks into parts of the pan on press-brake, and, finally, welding all formed parts together. Quality standards for sheet metal industry allow some variances in thickness, hardness, and surface smoothness. Those variances, being inherited, cause dimensional and optical inconsistencies in parts of safe module, even when blanks are derived from the same batch of sheet metal. The variable conditions existing during different stages of manufacturing process, like accuracy of the set-up of the shear and press-brake, existence of bending overflows, called knuckles, from breaking the blanks previously cut in an angle, thickness of the sheets, and type and quality of welding, all influence the shape of parts and their final quality. Assembly of parts produced in said environment requires significant amount of skilled labor to assure tight matching of the panels in the final product.
In known art of modular safes production every blank component is cut individually from standard size of sheet metal. While every individual part of the structure has different and variable dimensions by design, cutting said pieces from rectangular standard size of sheet metal causes significant material waste that increases the cost of the final product.
Modular safe, assembled from plurality of dimensionally variable elements, being the result of the manufacturing method, is burdened with inconsistent size of door frame opening. To make the safe assembly functional, modular safe door panels are made with dimensional tolerance larger than in monolith safes. More precisely, fitted door is always regarded as important security measure. Elimination of every possible dimensional variance in production process and introduction of more precise method of forming and joining panels together will result in better fitted door in modular safe assembly.
Door locking mechanism of the safe requires dedicated inserts in door surrounding modules, so the active bolts of a door locking mechanism can engage the inserts in the walls, floor, and roof to secure the door inside the door opening. The embedment of attaching inserts reduces security of that safe's locking mechanism.
Therefore, it is apparent, that there is a need for a safe, which is cost-effective and provides ability of being consistently manufactured from wide assortment of formable materials, that can be economically and easily stored, transported, installed, and relocated, that while assembled, will efficiently protects valuables in various commercial and private applications, spanning from jewelry stores to discerning individual users in high-rise building locations, for which the product can be easily customized with luxury or exotic finish without altering or affecting basic production method, that will have high ratio of useful to overall storage capacity similar to monolith type of safes, and that will have provision to utilize variety of compact and strong door locking mechanisms.